Muhammed Msaimi, aged 26, hid for over a day with his wife and three children in the bathroom because of gunfights which took place outside their apartment. However, the bullets found their way into that room as well, and they crawled behind a thick wall, Msaimi, a registered refugee, said.
"Then the soldiers came and told us to leave. They said we should cover our ears. They blew up the floor above us. No one lives there," he told IRIN. The explosion knocked out the entire upper floor and caused structural damage to the rest of the building. Msaimi now lives with his in-laws.
The effects of these military operations at such close quarters have an incalculable impact on the well-being of the young. |
Fear
However, the effect on the civilian population was considerable, residents said.
"My children are afraid to come back here," said Msaimi, adding that they were staying at a friend's home nearby.
Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN |
A Palestinian girl attending a UNRWA school side-steps the rubble of a damaged home |
The agency runs psycho-social programmes and has counsellors at its two camp schools.
"The children are not studying now, they are frightened. They go to school and draw, colour and read stories," said Samia Abu Salah, whose children attend UNRWA schools and are taking part in a programme which tries to help the children express their feelings.
Her home was invaded by the military: "We heard noises from below our bedroom. It was the Jews underneath," she recounted, referring to the Israeli soldiers. "We all moved away, into the stairwell. Then we saw them coming out of the floor, from below," Abu Salah said. The soldiers had blown up the apartment below, knocking a hole in the ceiling and were climbing upwards.
Gunness said UNRWA can offer limited financial support for those who lost their homes or suffered damage.
“Through walls” tactic
According to the residents in other homes a similar tactic, known as "through walls", was used. Soldiers go through neighbours' homes, destroying joint walls, to reach targets without being exposed in the narrow streets.
The building next to Abu Salah, four stories high, was totally demolished by Israeli bulldozers, leaving dozens homeless. Personal belongings like furniture, video tapes and clothes stick out of the rubble. The soldiers, searching for and fighting militants, did not give the residents time to get their possessions out, residents said.
Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN |
"The noises during the fighting hurt my ears so much. The windows are broken. I hope they fix it before winter. It's getting cold now at night." |
Aisha, 74 |
In other areas, people were cordoned off while soldiers used their homes as observation points, residents said.
"My brother had 71 people in his house - the women in one room and the men in another - for two days," said Ghassan, a school teacher. "They used all their food in one day but received bread from the Palestinian Medical Relief on the second.”
"The noises during the fighting hurt my ears so much," said Aisha, aged 74, as she sat on the floor preparing soup from UNRWA food aid.
Sewage pipes damaged during the fighting overflow outside her small home, spreading a foul smell in the air.
"The windows are broken. I hope they fix it before winter. It's getting cold now at night," she said.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions